The end of a long, frustrating battle over amenities is in sight for residents of The Peninsula on the Indian River Bay.
On Thursday, the Ocean Atlantic Companies broke ground on a new clubhouse at the gated community, which has seen its fortunes rise and fall more than most with the housing boom in the early 2000s, the lengthy recession that tied lead weights to home prices, and the rebound since.
“Some of you have waited more than 10 years for this day,” said Preston Schell, a co-founder of Ocean Atlantic, on Thursday. Ocean Atlantic bought the development, and its more than 600 unsold lots, last fall from Wells Fargo, the national bank company. A bank that Wells Fargo later bought provided the original financing for The Peninsula, an 800-acre development several miles east of Millsboro.
Residents first moved into the pricey neighborhood in 2005, and some of their houses overlooked a Jack Nicklaus-branded golf course, wave pool, walking trails, gym, spa, indoor pool and restaurant. Initial listings for some homes topped $800,000.
But a main clubhouse advertised by the original developer, Peninsula at Longneck LLC, kept getting delayed. By 2009, the lender, Wachovia Bank, initiated foreclosure proceedings. Wells Fargo took ownership of the unsold lots at a sheriff’s sale in September 2013.
Sussex County government, which issues building permits in the development, had set a March 24 deadline for clubhouse construction. At Wells Fargo’s request, the county extended the deadline to December 2016, but ordered The Peninsula to submit a $14.3 million letter of credit or bond for the clubhouse if it wanted to continue pulling building permits.
John Gee, a Peninsula homeowner who’s actively pushed for a clubhouse to be built, said the arrival of Ocean Atlantic as developer gave residents new confidence. Schell Brothers, an Ocean Atlantic-owned homebuilding company, had already constructed hundreds of the development’s homes and is now selling more lots.
“Ocean Atlantic has operated right as they should, to the letter of what was prescribed. They did it willingly,” Gee said. “The intent they have shown has been exactly what we hoped for.”
The three-story clubhouse design incorporates a restaurant, banquet rooms, locker rooms, a pro shop for golfers and outdoor event spaces. Chapman Coyle Chapman Architects of Marietta, Ga. produced the design. And Andrew Feeley, an executive chef at Rehoboth Beach’s Eden restaurant, has been hired to be executive chef at the existing Peninsula restaurant, and to lead the kitchen in the clubhouse when it opens.
“You guys will be happy you waited,” Schell said to a large group of Peninsula residents who gathered to watch the groundbreaking.
A Peninsula homeowner who’s also in the development business, Dennis Silicato, filed lawsuits several years ago to force the development not to abandon the clubhouse plan entirely.
“It’s moving in the right direction, and he’s very pleased,” Silicato’s attorney, Rich Abbot, said. “To be honest, if he hadn’t pressed that, the property would still be in limbo.”